I’ve Moved!

Thanks for visiting! I’ve permanently moved my blog here: joelwidmer.com

Check it out for updated posts and contact info

How to rotate text boxes in Keynote

Heres how to rotate text boxes in Keynote ’09. This also works for Keynote ’08 and Pages.

1. Create a text box.

2. Click on the “metrics” tab on your inspector.

3. Drag the rotate button or choose your rotation degree.

You don’t have to be Zappos to offer Great Customer Service

A week ago I was frantically searching the internet for 3000 square campaign stickers. My client need them dirt cheap and a guaranteed 7 day turnaround for an event they were hosting in 8 days. I found a site that gave a good price but couldn’t guarantee the in-hands date. If they arrived late, the stickers would be useless.

It was then I remembered a gentlemen I had met at a meeting several months ago that worked for Embroidme, a local promotional product supplier in Murfreesboro, TN. I dug up his business card and gave him a call. Long story short, because he was so close he was able to guarantee the in-hands date and on top of that, blew the competitors price out of the water. It wasn’t an expensive order to begin with so I know the guy hardly made any money off the order. It was the best customer service I’ve experienced in a long time and I’ll definitely be recommending Mike in the future. It’s such a pleasure working with people who have a passion for what they do. Thanks Mike!

Got a great customer service story? Let me and the people that deserve your thanks know!

Need a break from the radio?

I love the radio.

Having been a DJ for 5 years, I have a great appreciation for the radio. I still love to skip from station to station in my car. But I can only take so much classic rock and commercials. More and more I have been downloading podcasts and listening to them in my car.

I find myself mostly  listening to business, tech, and productivity podcasts. So here are my current top 5 favorites within those categories:

1. Harvard Business IdeaCast: Features interviews, commentary, and ideas from leading business and mgmt thinkers. Definitely check out
2. Pop!Tech Pop!Cast Videos: Great videos from a 3-day summit that draws a huge number of visionary thinkers in science, busienss, technology etc..
3. Ted Talks: (video) This is one of my favorites. Talks from some of the worlds most fascinating people.
4. Get-It-Done Guy’s Quick and Dirty tips to work less and do more: Short 5-6 minute podcasts offering useful tips ranging from how to focus when your on the computer to remembering names and faces.
5. iinnovate: Stanford students lead 15-minute interviews with leading entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs. I definitely recommend the interview with Scott Cook, founder of Intuit.

Any great podcasts I’m missing?

Notes from Viral Marketing Webinar with Guy Kawasaki

Smartbrief put on a Webinar today called “From Brainstorm to Firestorm: Creating an Environment for Viral Marketing Success” – Round table with Guy Kawasaki, Andy Sernovitz, and a couple other hosts.

Save yourself an hour and a half and check out my notes from it. The nuggets are highlighted in yellow.

Thoughts?

Smartbrief_roundtable

Why Zillow is up 67% in this Real Estate Market

When I saw this headline on a Smartbrief  it intrigued me. I worked in the real estate world for about 2 years. It just so happened that when I decided it wasn’t for me, it plummeted. When I skimmed the article, I found it interesting that they were doing so well right now so I posted it to Twitter (naturally). It wasn’t until my friend Dave direct messaged me and asked why I thought they were doing so well that I actually dug into the situation.

Here’s what I found

Contribution is King

Turns out, a big piece of what Zillow is doing is what Scott Cook did years ago at Intuit. Something called the Contribution Revolution. They had the brains to realize that they didn’t have all the answers to home buyers and sellers question. So they let the hungry Real Estate Agents do the work with Zillow Advice. There are over 200,000 active Real Estate Agents and 12,000 lenders ready to build value through your questions.

One-Stop Shopping

Zillow used to be a fun tool to check out your home’s value in comparison with your neighbors. Now that’s just the start. They offer:

• Instant Mortgage quotes
• Homes for sale
• Every category of advice from home improvement to local topics
• Directory of real estate agents
• My Zillow: where you can save searches, houses etc…
• Zillow Iphone App: 535,000 downloads and counting

The Real Estate Market

Face it. When times are tough, people are looking for all the free convenient resources they can get to make the best financial decisions. In this case, the plunging market worked in Zillow’s favor. And they are proving it by constantly adding new features to their site. But is it a business model that is going to always do the opposite of the market? We’ll see when Real Estate is on its way back up.

Welcome!

Thanks for visiting my blog! Let me take a sec to let you know what it’s all about.

I have an attention span of about 5 minutes. So if you don’t like to read long posts your in luck! In my blog I’ll cover:

• Useful sites and applications and how to use them.
• Using social media personally and for your business
• Implementing digital business design into you business
• Presentation design tips and tricks
• Lessons from industry leaders
• and much more!

This blog is for anyone who is just stepping into the world of social media or is already in but not sure of the next step. Feel free to leave a comment or if you have a question let me know and I’ll do my best to answer it.